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Spicy Turkey Sausage

Maybe you want to make sausage so you know what ingredients go in it or maybe like me, just to see if you could make it. Maybe you have a New Year’s resolution to eat healthier.

I have to say that when I bought the ground turkey I was thinking it would be low in fat. Boy, was I surprised when I got home and looked at the package and saw that a 2 oz. portion of this ground turkey had 17 g of fat and was 15% fat; guess I did not look at the fat content when I picked it up thinking all turkey would be low in fat. My ALL TIME favorite smoked link type sausage (Slovack Jalapeno) has 20 g fat in a 2 oz. portion.

After researching this online I found out that not all ground turkey is the same. What I bought evidently had skin and maybe thigh meat in it verses a ground turkey made with all white meat. Not wanting to accept the fact that the turkey I bought had so much fat, I hiked to my freezer outside to check the fat content in a couple of frozen turkey breast I have waiting for my husband to try on our smoker. Lo and behold, fat content is like 2 g fat. So if this recipe goes over well I will be taking one of my turkey breast and grind it myself for sausage.

This sausage has a really good spicy taste. I added some crushed red pepper in addition to the cayenne. Next time I will just add the crushed red pepper.

I’m starting to wonder why in the world would anyone give up flavor of a good pork sausage to have a turkey sausage that is made of turkey of all things. I guess if you don’t eat red meat that would be a good answer, maybe the only answer I would accept. So, after making this recipe I would make it again but I will be using pork, no more turkey sausage for me.

Lots of spices you may or may not have in your pantry. I buy mine in bulk so I can buy just a tiny bit if that’s all that’s needed in a recipe.

I ground my fennel a little to release some of the flavor.

Turkey with all the spices.

See all those white streaks. Must be the skin that was ground up with the meat.

The first two patties were just put in a dry skillet. After that, I added a little olive oil to the pan and that kept the sausage a little more moist.

Combine all ingredients (use less pepper if you don’t want a spicy taste) and blend well.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate a few hours or overnight to let the meat absorb the flavor of the spices.

Form into patties and cook as needed. I fried all of mine at once and threw in the freezer for quick breakfasts.

Don’t overcook or they will dry out – remove from the heat as soon as they’re no longer pink inside but still juicy. If you prefer a moister texture, add a splash of olive oil or an egg to the mixture just prior to cooking).

*Note, I don’t think I would add an egg. I did add some olive oil to the skillet when I cooked them.